Control (Book Seven) (Fated Saga Fantasy Series)

by Humphrey - D'aigle, Rachel

  ##

  Ivan was on high alert. After the false alarm moose appearance, he and Jae had not spoken. Sebastien, in bird form, flew overhead keeping a look out. Ivan and Jae each took a corner of the front of the house while the Catawitch’s took the backside of the house.

  Ivan’s heart strummed, his nerves standing to attention at the slightest sound or movement. Dawn would be coming soon. At least in the daylight it would be easier to see an attack coming.

  It zoomed by his head, out of nowhere.

  A spell; thrown at the front door of the house. It ricocheted, hitting the ground, thanks to the protection spells they had cast.

  Ivan and Jae ducked, crawling behind a water barrel at the side of the house.

  They didn’t see anyone. And they heard no movement.

  “Probably trying to see how many of us there are,” said Ivan.

  “So what do we do?”

  “Sit tight, see if they strike again. Our protections should hold them off for a little while.”

  Ivan heard a bird chirping overhead. He looked up to see Sebastien in his bird form peering down. He shook his head letting them know that he saw nothing.

  A second spell zinged over their heads; this one bounced off the roof, splitting a tree just to the side of the house.

  Nona and Elisha held their ground at the back of the house, but saw nothing approaching.

  “Okay, I want you to get inside the house, Jae,” decided Ivan. “I’ll follow in a minute. I’d feel better if we were closer to Meghan, Colin and Colby.” He motioned for Jae to crawl along the ground to the front steps.

  From behind the water barrel, Ivan shot two harmless lighting spells into the air. It wasn’t meant to hit anything, just grab their attention for a moment.

  Jae got inside and slammed the door shut. He peeked out of the window right next to the front door, watching for Ivan.

  Ivan slipped to the back of the house and called out for Nona and Elisha, ordering them to get inside the house. They scurried alongside the walls, hiding in the low shadows along the ground. When their feet touched the stairs Jae opened the door, letting them inside.

  Ivan and Sebastien getting inside would be harder.

  Whoever was attacking would not keep falling for distraction spells. Ivan crawled back behind the barrel and then made his way to the front door. A spell whizzed over his head and slammed against the house. It did not do any damage, but it didn’t ricochet off either; the protection was already weakening.

  He slid back behind the barrel.

  Sebastien flew down to his side.

  “Did you see anyone?”

  Sebastien, still in bird form, shook his beak, no.

  Footsteps.

  “Someone’s coming,” warned Ivan.

  He peeked around the barrel and although he heard the distinct sound of feet scuffing across dirt, he could see no movement.

  Sebastien took flight, taking cover high in the branches of a pine tree, his bird eyes scouring the landscape for any sign of their attackers.

  A man’s voice called out.

  “We can end this simply. No one needs to get hurt. Just hand over the boy and girl we seek.”

  They were not here for the Projectors. Juliska must have sent them... they were tracking him and Meghan. Part of him felt relief over this fact; at least this was a foe he could fight against.

  Ivan responded, “Sorry. Juliska’s going to have to wait. I won’t be handing Meghan or myself over, any time soon.”

  He had feared it would be just a matter of time before Juliska sent someone to hunt them down. And for all he knew, Billie had been right in her concerns; she may have directed Juliska’s hunting party right to them.

  “Mr. Crane, I presume,” the voice called out. “You might be interested to know that our mission is not for you today. Although, we have been warned about you and your little miss.”

  Ivan did not respond. He had been too quick to dismiss the fact that they were here for Colin and Colby.

  “My patience is thin, Mr. Crane.”

  “Why don’t you show yourself,” Ivan shouted back.

  To his surprise, the man did show himself. He materialized out of the darkness from the side of a large tree trunk in Kanda’s driveway.

  “Stripers,” realized Ivan. “Perfect! An enemy we can’t see. This is just getting better and better.”

  The Striper took a few steps towards the house. “As I said, we’re not here for you. We seek the Projector and the Song Spinner, per the Queen’s orders.”

  So Juliska Blackwell was going by just the Queen now.

  Ivan was confused. Billie had warned them that Juliska was looking for him and Meghan. Why was she now looking for Colin and Catrina? He shook his head, feeling dumb.

  It was a trap.

  They had hoped Billie and her crew would go in the opposite direction for help, right into the arms of the ones she was really looking for.

  “Good thing Catrina isn’t here,” Ivan mumbled, adding, “really wish those guys would wake up in there.”

  Inside the house, Jae, Elisha and Nona checked in on the three memory travelers; still no sign of waking up. They crept back to the front of the house and took a peek outside and saw the Striper standing in the driveway. They heard everything he and Ivan discussed.

  “I hate to say it, but maybe Catrina being imprisoned by Freyne was a good thing,” said Jae.

  Nona meowed in sarcastic agreement.

  Elisha snarled toward the front window. “I’ll never let them near my master,” she purred in a deadly tone.

  “While I agree with your sentiment,” said Nona, “do you have any actual ideas?”

  Elisha snarled, “Just one. Get my master out of here!”

  She darted into the living room where Colby lay, still deeply in his trance.

  Jae crawled in, keeping low, Nona right behind him.

  “No! Elisha! You can’t take him. You don’t know what will happen!”

  Nona jumped in front of Elisha, thrashing her claws and catching her chin.

  “So it’s a fight you want?” Elisha snapped.

  “No. But I won’t let you take Colby away from here,” Nona replied, her stance poised to fight.

  Outside the house, Jae heard the Striper’s voice call out.

  “Five minutes. I’ll give you five minutes to make the smart choice. Hand over the boy and girl, the rest of you can leave in peace.”

  “Really? You’ll just allow us to walk away?” replied Ivan. “Why don’t believe you?”

  The Striper’s eyes started to glow as the moon emerged from a thinning cloud, over the edge of the trees, behind him.

  A heartless grin spread across his face.

  “Five minutes,” he reminded. “Turn them over, or prepare to fight.”

  Chapter 6

  The blast hole was just large enough for two people at a time to squeeze through.

  It was on the backside of the prison wall.

  The prisoners rushed through, two by two.

  A voice hollered near the front of the prison.

  “What was that?”

  “Hurry, get inside! Check it out!”

  An elderly couple insisted on being the last out, waiting patiently as the twenty other prisoners got through and ran for their lives towards the rendezvous location: the Sadorus estate.

  There was a pathway that started at the back of the prison, breaking off in three different directions, leading into the woods.

  Draped in total darkness, it took a moment for the prisoners’ eyes to adjust so they could see the correct path they needed to follow. Schoolchildren had worn this path well.

  “The prisoners are escaping,” a guardsman called out repeatedly.

  The lead prisoner, nicknamed Scarface, urged the elderly couple to get through. He would follow as the last one out.

  They squeezed through just as Stripers rushed around the corner. The elderly woman thrust her provisions into the hands of Scarface, whil
e at the same time, her husband grabbed the potion bottle Scarface held in his hand.

  “Run,” the old man ordered.

  The elderly man turned and threw the potion bottle towards the guardsmen. It blew up in front of him, sending dirt and plumes of smoke into the air.

  “What are you doing?” Scarface demanded.

  The woman took his hand and said, “Run. Get everyone to safety. We’re too old and weak to make it. No arguing.” She pulled another potion bottle out of her sleeve, aiming it towards the Striper guards, now working their way through the first explosion.

  Scarface didn’t have time to argue. He obeyed, knowing full well he was leaving them to their doom. The only price worth their lives, was if he could do as they asked. Keep the others safe. Keep them alive.

  The elderly woman waited until the guard was just about upon them, and dropped the potion bottle just a few feet in front of her.

  Her husband grabbed her and they ambled in the opposite direction of the other escapees. The right side path didn’t go far, coming out just at the front of the prison, in the street. It was also a thin path and they had to run, one in front of the other. The husband stayed in front, hoping to protect his wife.

  Lights were flickering on inside every house.

  Curtains opening.

  Faces glued to whatever was happening outside; a place they were forbidden to go if they were over sixteen, or at all, if it was after dark.

  A shadow flew overhead. Wings snapped in the heavy night air.

  The elderly woman screamed, tripped and fell. Her husband turned to go back for her. A foreboding shape landed in between him and his wife, blocking her from view and forcing his retreat.

  “Sylvia,” he called out to her.

  Two guards caught up and grabbed him roughly, securing his body with younger, stronger hands.

  He called out to his wife but she didn’t answer.

  Sylvia got to her feet, her body shaking. She knew what was coming. There was no stopping it. She mustered every bit of courage she could find and faced the Scratcher head on.

  It leaned forward, staring into Sylvia’s aged eyes.

  She didn’t flinch, even when it flashed its fang-like teeth at her.

  She kept her gaze firm and straight into the Scratcher’s red and black eyes as it wrapped its wings around her body.

  “You can have me,” she told it. “But you won’t win.”

  The Scratcher threw its head into the air letting out a shriek that rippled over the entire island.

  A moment later, her lifeless body slumped to the ground.

  The Scratcher took to the air with a triumphant and deafening screech.

  Harold, Sylvia’s husband, lost his balance. He knew what he was about to see, but just the same, seeing the dead body of his wife caused his knees to buckle.

  “Where did the prisoners go?” a guardsman asked him.

  Harold did not reply. He barely even heard the question.

  The guards shook him violently, one holding up his face.

  “I’ll ask you one more time, where did the prisoners go?”

  He did not answer.

  A guard slapped Harold across the face.

  “Do what you will with me. I won’t tell ya nothing,” Harold said.

  “You might just change your mind about that when I get through with you. So I’ll ask you one last time, where did the prisoners go?”

  Harold flung him a determined grin.

  The guard raised his arm to hit Harold again, but it was stopped mid swing.

  The guard made a grunting noise and turned to see who had stopped him.

  “KarNavan, my apologies,” he bowed his head. “And my Queen,” he added anxiously, upon seeing Juliska Blackwell stroll out of the shadows.

  “There is no need for your kind of torture,” said Juliska, her voice cutting. “Not when I can get what I want, so much faster.”

  She approached Harold, her long form-fitting jacket skimming the frost covered cobblestone as she walked.

  “What are you going to do to me?” asked Harold, his voice uncaring. Suck out the rest of my already spent life?”

  Juliska ignored his retort.

  “You know, you should bow to your Queen,” she said.

  The guards had to fight him, but they got him to his knees.

  Harold looked upon Juliska Blackwell with hate-filled eyes and then spit onto her pointy shoes.

  “If I’m going to die, you might as well know what I really think of you,” he said.

  “The feeling is mutual,” she replied with a bored smile. “Harold, where are the prisoners going?”

  “You know I ain’t going to tell you.”

  “I know. Just being polite,” she lied.

  She raised her arm, holding something in her palm.

  A smooth, round stone.

  “You want to change your answer?” she asked him.

  “Why? So you suck the magic out of me and kill me anyway?”

  “This is the problem with you people,” she said matter-of-factly.

  She turned and spoke as if speaking to anyone close enough to listen.

  “You’re all too eager to sacrifice yourselves for the so called greater good. It makes it very hard to find out what I need to know. And I will find out. Because the thing is, Harold,” she spun back around, “that this island is completely under my control. No ones leaves. No ones comes. Unless I permit it. They have nowhere to go. You’re all just delaying the inevitable.”

  “Help will come,” said Harold. “You just wait and see. You may think you’re the Queen, and maybe for now, you are, but it won’t last forever.”

  Juliska’s face turned murderous. She leaned down to look straight in his eyes. “Unlike you, Harold, I do have forever...”

  She stood and turned on the spot.

  “Let all seeing this tonight, bear witness to the punishment of treason to your Queen.” She reached out her arm and slammed the stone into Harold’s forehead.

  She even didn’t turn to give him a glance. Her eyes watched everyone else, watching her.

  Harold weakened. The stone’s power surged through his body, seeking out any bit of magical ability and power he had, until there was nothing left.

  Juliska pulled the stone away.

  Harold fell to the ground. Alive, but barely.

  Juliska closed her hands around the stone, walking away without giving Harold a second look.

  “KarNavan, come,” she ordered. As she whisked away, she said to the guards, “Clean up this mess.”

  Harold, weak as he was, crawled to the body of his dead wife. It took every ounce of strength he had to reach her.

  “They got away,” he told her. “They got away.” He rolled over and gazed up into starless night. “Help better come soon,” he mumbled, closing his eyes for the final time.

  ##

  Jasper Thorndike looked away from his beloved Aloyna, stepping back into the battle, his silhouette instantly lost in a sea of warriors.

  The scene around Meghan, Colin and Colby melted away.

  A new one building itself around them.

  Meghan got a shiver. She didn’t know if it was part of the spell, or if for some reason, in real life she was cold.

  In this new memory, it was day. From the position of the sun, Meghan guessed early afternoon.

  Fires smoldered. Smoke billowed. The battle was over.

  They were once again on the grounds of the estate.

  Eight robed figures stood in a semi-circle, just outside of the home; they held a woman between them.

  It was Aloyna.

  Jurekai stood in front of them all.

  “You are a traitor to your people,” he spoke with a biting hatred. “My own mother.”

  “I did what I must. Jasper has the Immortality Stone. It’s no longer within your grasp,” she replied evenly. “And one day, I will stop you.”

  “That is where you are wrong!” he said, stalking up to her. His dark eyes
peeled into hers. “You’ll pay for your sins, for the rest of your very long life.”

  “I’m willing to pay that price,” she told him. “I know what you do today, will one day be your undoing. But I will beg of you one last time, to stop. No one person should have this much power. Enough blood has been spilled.”

  “Enough of this!” he said, ignoring her plea. “Take her inside.”

  The eight robed figures dragged Aloyna inside the home.

  Jurekai Fazendiin followed and once inside, told the robed figures to let go of his mother. His justice was swift.

  With the flick of his wrist, Aloyna’s body dissolved into what looked like grains of sand. With another flick of his wrist, he swiped the sand into the glass where Aloyna’s figure rebuilt itself.

  “This is where you will spend your eternity,” said Jurekai. “In these glass walls you will waste away your years, forbidden to speak of your treachery, or your relationship with Jasper Thorndike. Oh, don’t worry,” he added. “I’ll find him. And I’ll find a way to kill him. And you won’t be able to do anything about it. Then you will finally know what it feels like to be betrayed by your own family.”

  “Claims the boy that killed his own father, my husband,” Aloyna whispered.

  Fazendiin strode up to the glass. “As I will do to anyone else that gets in my way. And you’ll do nothing but watch. I’ll be here, by your side, forever guarding this glass from being broken. Get comfortable, Mother. No one from this bloodline will ever free you from your prison.” Jurekai walked away, the eight robed figures in his wake.

  ##

  Mireya and Joseph waited at the back door. She held her hand on the doorknob, afraid to open it. Going out at night was forbidden. If she was caught, she didn’t know what would happen to her or her parents.

  But she couldn’t let the prisoners down. They were counting on her and Joseph to show them the way. She twisted the doorknob and opened the door. They stepped outside, inhaling the icy November air. All was quiet except for distant voices in the direction of the prison. Mireya and Joseph crept through the darkness, hand in hand, towards the back of the yard.

  There was a pathway that went all the way from the back of the school that crossed the back side of their yards, and continued into the woods, eventually coming out just across from the Sadorus estate.